Making the World Smoke-Free: Governments Taking Action - Essay Sample

Introduction

Recent times have seen governments across the globe put in efforts to reduce smoking as an effort to reduce the harmful effects of smoking to both smokers and non-smokers. Different policies get developed to discourage smoking, with significant policies targeting tobacco taxes, restricting and banning tobacco advertisements on all media. Programs that offer rehabilitation services to smokers who are willing to quit should get developed, and start different awareness and educational forms of campaigns that sensitize the public on the health risks associated with smoking. These numerous efforts by various governments get propelled by the fact that there are over four thousand known chemicals in tobacco smoke, where 250 of these chemicals have been identified to be detrimental to human health, with over 50 chemicals being carcinogenic agents to humans. Smoking tobacco in undesignated and open places results in both passive and active smoking. Active smokers refer to people that smoke intentionally while passive smokers inhale secondhand or environmental tobacco smoke; they inhale tobacco smoke unintentionally. Tobacco gets considered a recreational in many counties, although it should get banned from being smoked in public since it has adverse effects both on passive and active smokers.

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Why Public Smoking is a Major Concern

According to Wong and Victor (1), it gets estimated that over 700 million children, which is a number that accounts for almost half of the children across the globe breath air polluted by tobacco smoke. It also gets identified that over 40% of children have at least one of their parents as a smoker, which is alarming, considering 31% of about 600,000 premature deaths getting linked to secondary smoking. Second-hand smoking also affects adults, where it has been identified to cause severe cardiovascular and respirational illness. The commonly identified illness are lung cancer and heart disease. Second-hand smoking has worse effects since it causes sudden death, while pregnant mothers suffer low birth weights on their infants.

Extensive research on the effects of tobacco has identified two ways in which tobacco smoke can be harmful to an individual's heart. The first being direct smoking of tobacco, while the second is being a passive smoker, it gets is characterized by the continuous inhalation of air contaminated with cigarette smoke. When the smoke rates are high, it gets almost impossible to avoid second-hand smoking. Previously, it was unclear whether second-hand smoking was detrimental to the health of those inhaling the smoke, but it has got established that it does affect and cause harmful effects such as cancer or death to young infants. It should get noted that neither ventilation nor filtration or a combination of the two can reduce the exposure effects associated with inhaling cigarette smoke (Bhat, Nagesh, et al., 2017, p.2). Instead, it is only a 100% smoke-free environment that can be considered safe and thus offering protection to those that are non-smokers.

Smoking is getting discouraged, and people are embracing a green environment, and the once-popular smoking culture is diminishing, and smokers get marginalized across the globe. However, this occurrence does not translate to an assurance that individuals are safe from the harmful effects of smoking as continued evidenced research states that second-hand smoking exposure is as lethal as direct smoking. The noticeable effects are its harm to the heart, with the effects being similar to those of the smokers. According to Shrestha and Sarita (2), second-hand smoking exposure alters platelet functionality, causing endothelial dysfunction, affects the arterials by increasing their stiffness, and decreases the level of high-density lipoprotein, and increases marker inflammation. Other harmful effects on the second-hand smoker are the smoke increases infant size, it causes the damage to mitochondrial, affects the variability of the heart by decreasing it, which increases the risk of malignant arrhythmias, and further upsurges the insulin resistance. The levels of cardiotoxins associated with tobacco smoke are high and can hardly get compared to upholding an infant's health. It effectively legitimizes the ban on public smoking.

Studies on laws prohibiting smoking in public places such as restaurants and indicate that such policies have aided in fostering healthy environments for the general public (Bhat, Nagesh, et al., 2017, p.3). Deferent countries have embraced such studies and enforced policies and legislation that ban public smoking; for instance, in Scotland, a national smoke-free law was enacted banning smoking indoors, in all areas whether restaurants or bars. The ban targeted improvements in different health outcomes, especially the reduction of respiratory health issues such as shortness of breath and coughing. It also aimed to reduce sensory symptoms such as eye and throat irritations, improve the functionality of lungs for individuals working in such environments, and even critically, improve the quality of life for bar employees suffering from such illness as asthma. A similar law got implemented in Ireland, which targeted to improve the health and of bar workers, such as improving the functionality of their lungs and protection against second-hand smoking effects.

Banning public smoking will have a positive health impact on families. Smokers that smoke in their residential areas around kids increase their risks of developing different forms of illnesses such as ear infections, developing asthma, and getting breathing complications characterized by shortness of breath, bronchitis, and chronic coughs. It is evident that children raised by or around smokers have high probabilities of growing into smokers, especially as from their teenage years. Therefore, indoor smoking exposes families to second-hand smoke, which in turn puts the heart and lungs of all your family members at risk of developing complications irrespective of an elaborate air conditioning or ventilation system.

Smoking at the place of work exposes your coworkers to potentially harmful effects of tobacco and depletes their economic resources. Notably, smoking can affect the productivity of individuals at work, besides the numerous medical conditions that get linked to smoking. The fact that smoking reduces the immune function in the body of a smoker. It translates to the consumption of an individual's productive time and their spending in medical health care, which could get avoided. The time that would get utilized working gets spent treating diseases resulting from inhaling tobacco smoke. To the neighbors of a smoker, the effects are worse as the smoke has been identified to entail over 7000 chemicals, of which hundreds of the comprising chemicals are toxic, causing injurious consequences to the body of second-hand smokers such as cancer (Mazzonna & Paola, 2017, p.4).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Smoking in public should get banned since second-hand smoking is harmful. Second-Hand smoke exposes non-smokers to over 7000 chemicals majority of who get identified as bearing detrimental effects on their health, such as cancer and respiratory illness. A ban on public smoking would also protect the health of workers working in restaurants and bars, ensuring they work in health-conscious environments, and they get to be more productive. The sooner smokers choose to quit, the more likely they are to improve their heart and lung health and protect the health of those around them. Thus, above and beyond the public smoking ban, governments should implement rehabilitation programs to help smokers who are will to quit recover.

Works Cited

Bhat, Nagesh, et al. "Effect of anti-smoking legislation in public places." Addiction & health 7.1-2 (2015): 87.

Mazzonna, Fabrizio, and Paola Salari. "Can a smoking ban save your heart?." Health economics 27.10 (2018): 1435-1449.

Shrestha, Sabina, and Sarita Panta. "Attitude and practice of smoking among adolescents." Journal of Chitwan Medical College 8.2 (2018): 57-62.

Wong, Li Ping, and Victor Hoe. "Smoking-Prevention, Cessation, and Health Effects." (2019).